A Scythe Through Wheat

At TruView, we are constantly assessing our technology and datasets to ensure that we have the most up to date information when handling your investigations and background screens. One such investigative tool is a powerful search engine that we employ when we need to amp up our Pre-Investigation Intelligence Collection beyond the first level. This engine leverages our Social Media Monitoring, GeoFence Monitoring, and Continuous Criminal Monitoring capabilities by providing real time analysis, associations, and alerts of information gleaned through non-traditional open sources. It is truly a scythe through the wheat: a sharpened edge that can cut through the cover to show the open field that lies beyond.

Taking Investigations Further

Using simple combinations of a name, location, and email address or username, our engine can provide in-depth analyses of both traditional and non-traditional (or “alternate”) social media sites. We collect connections and monitor traffic between primary and secondary associations through a built-in link analysis tool. Then, we layer a keyword search function on top of the link analysis, which provides context between online conversations and, potentially, discloses information related to an investigation.

This capability focuses on traditional sites such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Reddit, but emerging alternate social media sites—such as discussion boards, foreign media networks, along with deep and dark web filtering—are added to it every day. The robust datasets allow TruView the capacity to take our investigations even further, finding the needle in the haystack (or in this case, wheat stack).

For example, our analyst was able to pull a photo of a subject and positively identify the individual from a website that would not have been part of our standard intelligence collection procedure. In another case, the analyst used the link analysis feature to eliminate variables and extraneous social media accounts until it narrowed the scope and located the correct account for our subject.

Protective Measures

Beyond the revelatory aspects of our scythe, the functions of the engine also allow for protective measures. Clients can add a geofence around their locations, such as a headquarters office, job site, or critical infrastructure. Layering a keyword threat matrix in conjunction with the geofence provides an abundant equation for real-time results. Threats made on social media against a location such as a walk-off, workplace violence, or other more harmful scenarios would be captured through the keyword association. Customized alerts would then be sent via email to the designated Client representative.

The geofence function can be deployed as new and ever challenging situations arise. In one example, a Client approached TruView to help monitor locations where their employees were volunteering at COVID-19 vaccination sites. TruView quickly developed a threat matrix that monitored for protests and other potential threats to employee safety and implemented it along with a geofence around the vaccination sites. By doing so, we have been able to monitor the locations in real time and, thus far, alert the Client to three planned protests in and around the site locations.

In the same vein as geofencing, the methodology can protect Client staff from physical threats or reputational risk. The principal of a company can be monitored against a keyword matrix, giving real-time insight to what is credible and tangent with regards to their personal and reputational safety. This alert function can be an invaluable tool to private security and executive protection personnel responsible for a client’s physical well-being, or to a public relations professional in charge of their client’s reputational health, giving them the ability to see through the clutter and get ahead of any potentially detrimental situations.

One thing is certain in this technological age: As more social media sites come about and as we place more of our personal and professional lives online, the need for monitoring against a multitude of variables will be ever present. This could be for adverse content in pre-employment hiring, against threats to physical locations, or even for reputational risk that may hit the headlines before you are able to react. The amount of material, of “wheat,” clouding your vision is something that cannot be sifted through alone. TruView has the tools to do so, and our blade is sharp. Let us scythe through the wheat for you.